Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique

I have only one recording of Hector Berlioz (1803-1869), his most famous work the Symphonie Fantastique. It is one of the many re-releases of the RCA Victor "Living Stereo" recordings, this one featuring the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch.

The work is a bit autobiographical. It seems that Berlioz had what for a while was a one-sided love affair with an Irish actress, Harriet Smithson. The symphony is a program work (for which he provided a script at its premiere). The first movement, entitled "Reveries; Passions" introduce the theme, an idee fixe, that represents throughout the symphony a beautiful woman loved by a lonely musician. In anguish over his own one-sided love, takes opium. What follows is a series of dreams. The dreams, in order of their appearance in the work, are as follows: "A Ball"; "Scene in the Country"; "March to the Scaffold"; and "Dream of a Witches' Sabbath."

The anguish felt by the artist must have also been felt by Berlioz, as for the longest time he knew only her face and name; they did not talk, nor even meet, for quite sometime. The work was completed before Berlioz and Smithson met. Those of us with a romantic streak would be happy to know that Hector did finally meet Harriet, and they fell in love and were even married. Those same romanticists would be disappointed to know that the marriage was a failure.